Dispatches from Petaluma

Following its close cousin Sonoma into the fray of a wine-drenched cultural identity, Petaluma too, is in the midst of pouring itself into Wine Country. The indicators surround us, not least of which the pending approval of the Petaluma Gap as an official American Viticultural Area and the occasional wine tasting [...]

June is here and one can already hear the anthemic choruses of Alice Cooper’s ode to academic escape “School’s Out for Summer!” And yet, one Petaluma gallery has found a way to sneak in one last assignment. Don’t worry – this won’t ruin your summer vacation, in fact, the onus [...]

It’s difficult to refrain from making “King of the Hill” gags when one knows that author Joe Hill is the son of Stephen King. Name games aside, the New York Times bestselling author will be at Copperfield’s Books in Petaluma tonight, promoting his latest release, The Fireman, which explores what [...]

Besides beer, engineering and the occasional world war, Germans are known for their idiomatic words – you know, the one’s that sum up abstract but useful concepts like schadenfreude (pleasure in others’ misfortune) and weltschmerz (world weariness). Then there’s biergarten, which has a much more positive connotation, and thanks to what linguists [...]

For some, the word “roadhouse” conjures memories of the Patrick Swayze movie of the same name in which he plays a philosophical bouncer to whom Sam Elliott memorably croaks “I'll get all the sleep I need when I'm dead.” For others, it's a Penngrove bar recently reimagined into a bustling [...]

You know what they say – “To play a big piano, you need a big pianist.” Actually, nobody has ever said that (until now) but they probably should with the arrival of pianist Jura Margulis at the Petaluma Historical Library and Museum. The Russian-born, German-raised, virtuoso will perform Saturday, May [...]

Every month for the past five years, comedian Dave Pokorny warms the crowd at Sonoma Portworks for an intimate evening of dependable laughter, occasional tears, and the hard-won insight that comes from true-life tales. The gig is West Side Stories, a series in which storytellers of every stripe tell "five [...]

Here’s some perspective: Coffee is thought to have first been cultivated by Arabs in the 14th century. That makes the recent wait for a coffee cart to open at the Petaluma Mail Depot a blink of the eye. And, yes, for most of us in need of our morning fix, [...]

As Petaluma’s real estate market continues to grow (and local housing prices along with it), an alternative trend to going big, as they say, is going small. Literally – in terms of square footage. The Tiny House Movement, as it's generally known, is an architectural and social movement that advocates quality [...]